The present invention relates to digital printing, and more particularly, the printing of digital images onto a photosensitive media.
With the advent of digital printing onto photosensitive material many more opportunities are provided for improving the quality of the output of the image. This is particularly important wherein images are produced by printing images on a photographic media such as photographic film. In prior art optical printers of photographic film, color adjustments are typically made to the exposure light in order to correct for color balance. With the advent of digital printing, various other enhancements and/or corrections may be provided for printing of images from film so as to compensate for poor flash or lighting during taking of the image by the camera, or other flaws caused by the camera or picture taker. Use of a digital printer also allows enhancements in sharpness and dust and scratch removal. However, with all these improvements, it is sometimes very difficult for the actual consumer to know and appreciate the benefit being provided to the consumer.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus whereby the consumer can more readily appreciate advantages provided by enhanced printing techniques used in printing of the images.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of printing a customer image order each containing a plurality of images, comprising the steps of:
obtaining a digital record of a customer order containing a plurality of images;
digitally enhancing at least one of the plurality of images;
determining the amount of digital enhancement made to each of the images enhanced and providing a rating based on the amount of correction provided and determining the image having the highest rated image enhancement;
printing of the images in accordance with the enhancement determined for each of the images; and
printing one of the customer orders having a predetermined amount of enhancement without any of the enhancements so as to provide a comparison print illustrating how the image would have been printed without the enhancements.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for printing customer image orders, each containing a plurality of images, comprising:
a device for obtaining a digital record containing a plurality of images of a customer image order;
a memory for at least temporarily storing the plurality of images;
means for digitally enhancing at least one of the plurality of images;
means for determining the amount of enhancement made to each of the images enhanced and providing a rating based on the amount of correction provided; and
a digital printer for printing the plurality of images of the customer which have been digitally enhanced and for printing a comparison print of the image having a predetermined amount of enhancement rating without the enhancement.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which when loaded into a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of:
analyzing images for a certain predetermined characteristics and then automatically digitally enhancing these features based on a predetermined criteria;
forwarding the enhanced images to a printer for printing;
determining an enhancement rating for each of the images of the customer order; and
printing the image have a predetermined amount of enhancement.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of printing a customer image order, each containing a plurality of images, comprising the steps of:
obtaining a digital record of a customer order containing a plurality of images;
determining the amount of enhancement that can be made to each of the images enhanced and providing a rating based on the amount of correction provided;
printing of the images as originally provided; and
printing one of the images the customers order with enhancements so as to provide a comparison print illustrating how the image would have been printed with the enhancements.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for printing customer image orders, each containing a plurality of images, comprising:
a device for obtaining a digital record of a plurality of images for a customer image order;
a memory for at least temporarily storing the plurality of images;
means for determining the amount of enhancement that can be made to each of the images enhanced and providing a rating based on the amount of correction that may be provided; and
a digital printer for printing the plurality of images of the customer as originally provided and for printing a comparison print of an image from the plurality of images with enhancements which has a rating of predetermined amount.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product, comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which when loaded into a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of:
analyzing digital images in a customer image order to determine which image would most benefit from applying digital enhancing algorithms and rating each as to the amount of enhancement that can be made;
forwarding the images as originally provided to a printer for printing; and
printing a comparison print of one of the plurality of images with enhancement, the comparison print having a rating of a predetermined amount.